Heavenly. Yes, it’s the perfect description of this Strawberry Summer Cake. I am not a fan of cake, but my husband is. The amount of sugar and fat that goes into a cake and then again into the frosting is more than I feel comfortable making unless it’s a rare occasion. This cake does not need frosting. A tiny bit of whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream is at most all it needs!

Deb Perelman, the woman who writes the fabulous blog, The Smitten Kitchen can come up with the most mouth-watering recipes. Every single recipe that I have tried has been out of this world! I signed up for her newsletter which is full of inspiration and recipes… Recently, there was a recipe for a sheet cake size Strawberry Cake that was based off of the Strawberry Summer Cake original recipe (shown above). Since there are only two of us, and with the Coronavirus floating around, no company in the foreseeable future (if ever, or so it feels) – a 9″ pie plate size cake sounded just right! She adapted this recipe slightly from Martha Stewart. I look so forward to trying Deb’s version with the barley flour/flour mix!

Head on over to the Smitten Kitchen to print this recipe – I’ll give you a brief overview, Deb has a great sounding version adding a little barley flour, which I haven’t found YET, but am absolutely going to try it!

STRAWBERRY SUMMER CAKE

Ingredients: 6 tablespoons, unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups flour (can use 3/4c barley flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour), 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 tsp table salt (I only had kosher salt and it worked fine), 1 cup MINUS 2 T sugar + 2 T sugar to sprinkle on the top, 1 large egg, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 pound strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and cut in half.

Directions: Preheat oven to 350℉ – butter a 9″ deep dish pie plate (mine was 9.5 deep dish) – more details on SmittenKitchen.com

Mix together the flour(s), baking powder, salt. In another bowl beat the softened butter + sugar (setting aside the 2 T for to sprinkle on top) – mix until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer – it took about 3 full minutes. Then add the egg, milk and vanilla stirring just until combined. Add the dry mixture gradually, and mix just until the lumps are gone.

Pour into the prepared pie plate. Now the fun part… arrange the strawberries on top of the batter (cut side down) – I tried to make a pretty pattern, but had quite a few strawberries, I overlapped and fit them all on!) – Sprinkle the reserved 2T of sugar on top of the cake. This will turn the strawberries into a jammy delight!

Bake for 10 minutes, then REDUCE the temp to 325℉ and bake about 50-60 minutes. Keep testing by inserting cake tester or slim knife into the cake portion (not the strawberries – they will not be dry) – then let the cake cool on a rack. We served with whipped cream, but vanilla ice cream would be equally as good!

You will not believe how good this is – and ✨BONUS✨ your house/apartment will smell SO good!!

Head on over to check out the Smitten Kitchen, I’m pretty sure you will become lost in a sea of fabulous recipes!

SMITTEN KITCHEN

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✍️ Until next time…